Phil Garner will be scouting Astros for the A’s

Former Astros manager Phil Garner will be scouting his former team for the A's this spring. ( Karen Warren / Chronicle )

As the Astros prepare to join the American League this year, their new AL West rivals will be busy scouting at Osceola County Stadium this spring. The A’s Bob Melvin will lean on his scouts in Florida this spring to pick up info on the Astros. He’ll also get some help from his dear friend and mentor Phil Garner, the only manager to bring a World Series to Houston.

“That’s the one unknown,” Melvin said at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. “You see everybody else here in spring training. We didn’t play them last year. Their personnel is a little different than years past. You do have to do some research. You count on your scouts in Florida in spring training to give you some background.

“We will have Phil Garner who lives in Houston as a special adviser for us. He’ll take a look at them. You want to get as much information as you can going into the first game. Then once you play them a couple of times you get a better feel for the team. It’s more the first couple of games that you’re looking for information from your scouts. You do an awful lot of research on video and try to prepare your guys accordingly for personnel you haven’t really seen before.”

Garner, who managed the Astros from July 2004 until late in the 2007 season and won the National League pennant in 2005, and Melvin were teammates with the San Francisco Giants. Melvin was Garner’s bench coach with Detroit and Milwaukee.

Garner and Melvin also interviewed for the Astros’ managerial vacancy before Brad Mills was hired.

“I don’t respect anybody in baseball’s opinion more than I do his,” Melvin said of Garner, who lives in The Woodlands. “He’s the guy who taught me how to manage. He advanced Texas at the end of the season for us.”